<p>well, that’s just stupid.
We’re held to higher expectations because of a stereotype that we work harder? So the Asian who has better ECs, grades, whatever loses out to the white guy who has above average ECs and grades for his demographic, but far worse qualifications than the asian?</p>
<p>^ yongatilla, what do you mean? i mean, by “asian” i’m assuming playing the violin, piano, or viola and/or swimming and/or being in a math club or something. that’s detrimental solely because SO MANY PEOPLE (regardless of ethnicity, though lots of asians) do those ECs, so unless you’re spectacular it’s not impressive anymore-- schools don’t need carbon copies of the same applicant. i doubt it has anything to do with skin color, but how asians tend to have similar extra-curriculars. and this is coming from an asian.</p>
<p>@swimgeek,
Keep in mind, that people who post things like “being Asian hurts your chances” are just speculating. And keep in mind that people on this board have been wrong about many things before. Schools don’t release info on how many Asians apply, and how many are accepted. So, we will never really know if being Asian hurts your chances. The only evidence we have is, “well, like I know some really over-achieving Asians. So all Asians must be over-achieving. So, it’s harder to get in as an Asian! Now to tell every Asian applicant he’s screwed on an online forum…”</p>
<p>Well I think it depends on how everything works together and ties in with your personality.</p>
<p>I understand what you mean, by being raised as an American, because I was raised in a sort of an “American” way too.
They’re not necessarily expecting MORE out of you, but to get in as an Asian you have to stand out. Whether this means you have perfect grades, perfect scores, perfect recs, etc., or you’re different than the other applicants. These things make you interesting and helps make them like you.</p>
<p>Being asian doesn’t mean they expect more of you. It’s just that there are SO MANY asians applying to these schools (lots of them are great students, but there are also a lot of people who don’t really know that much about boarding school or are ‘faking’ everything). So it must be really hard for them to pick.</p>
<p>I never took statistics, so this might not apply on an individual basis as an applicant to Harvard, but I think being “Asian” increases your odds of being successful dramatically.</p>
<p>Sorry to say but the world today is NOT objective.</p>
<p>An admissions officer that will see your application after seeing 50 others, might be “bored” or “tired” or “have seen the same story 50 times” and therefore might not accept you.</p>
<p>I’m pretty positive (but may be wrong!) that, being Asian myself, they expect you to get a high percentile on the math section of the SSAT since most Asians are good at math…</p>